A Little Bit of Christmas

I think the best time to make Christmas decorations is in January. There is no pressure to complete them now, since Christmas isn't for another 12 months. You are not busy with other Christmas prep like decorating, shopping, baking and finishing projects that are to serve as gifts. The only downside is that you can't display your cool new Christmas decorations for 12 months. I get bonus points since the main material I'm using are old Christmas cards - using, not storing - huge bonus points.

These are the ones I made over the weekend. I'm not very fast, mostly because I'll do some and then I'll get up and check my computer or get distracted by the TV show (or have to change the channel).

They are quite simple to make. Cut your cards into strips. I cut my strips anywhere from 1 cm to 1" and came out to 8 to 20 strips. Punch holes in the top and bottom. I've been using Martha Stewart's hole punch and it works well. It might be the reason these have been slower. I hurt my wrist putting away my trees on Saturday and it's still twinging a bit today. The punch isn't super wrist friendly. The put a couple of fasteners (brads) through the holes, making sure they are thick enough to go through all the sheets. The longest ones I've found were at an office supply store, but only in brass. I picked up a bunch of others at Michaels, but I have to be careful how many strips I have for those because they are not as long. All that's left is bowing the strips of paper and spreading them out to create the ball.
These are the four I made today. I only have 3 cards left to do then I have to find where I stored the previous years cards (in anticipation of doing this project).

These qualify for mention in the good intentions category. Specifically the intention to make more Christmas decorations. It does not count as doing one craft project a month. I have another craft in mind for that intention.